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Sunday, June 21, 2015

Liberator quizzes Tim Farron and Norman Lamb

The new issue of Liberator questions the two candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats.

Question 1
The general election has exposed
the Liberal Democrat core vote at
only 7.9% of the electorate. Should
the party continue to maintain it
can ‘win everywhere’, should it or
build a core vote, and if so from
where should a core vote be built?

TIM FARRON
In past elections the party has been good at mobilising
the protest vote – and, as Jo Grimond said, there’s a lot
to protest about! The problem, of course, is that protest
voters abandoned us when we entered government. On
top of that, some of our actions in coalition alienated
some of the groups which were becoming more strongly
attached to us: students, healthworkers, teachers and
other public-sector professionals, ,. We must rebuild
their trust and belief in us.

A core vote is vital in
winning list seats in Wales, Scotland and London next
year and for Europe in 2019. Realistically, we have
to start by building on our previous parliamentary
representation – the sixty or so seats where we are still
in second place – plus others where we still have local
strength. The very disparate nature of the eight seats
we still hold offers some comfort here, representing a
wide range of different areas, urban, rural and smalltown.

NORMAN LAMB
I want to reach out to liberals everywhere across
the country. Almost 2.5m people voted for the party
throughout the UK and we must ensure that we
continue to represent them while also engaging with
those who share our ideas, beliefs and values even if
they didn’t vote for the party this time around. This is
a liberal age. We must convince all those people who
share our values that the Liberal Democrats are the
party for them.

At the same time, we must ruthlessly target our
efforts in seats where we can win at council level, in
the Scottish and Welsh Parliamentary elections and in
the 2020 general election. But it is important that we
continue to offer the public a proper liberal choice.